April 25, 2010

Instant speech translation, a longtime dream of science-fiction writers, is already feasible in certain situations, vendors said at the Mobile Voice Conference in San Francisco on Thursday. NetworkWorld reports.

Novauris demonstrated software running on a mobile phone that can instantly translate commonly used phrases, and another company, Fluential, discussed a server-based system that has been used for real-time interpretation in a hospital. Though neither is commercially available yet, both companies said they are technically ready to go.

-- MADCAT to take over translation for troops - Soldiers overseas are bombarded with foreign language images in the form of road signs, print media, captured documents, and graffiti... MADCAT provides "relevant, distilled, actionable information" to commanders and troops on the ground by translating foreign language text images accurately and automatically.

-- Phones to serve as doctors, translators - A Samsung 4G device would act as a simultaneous interpreter. The 4G device should break down communication barriers by providing translation and interpretation functions

-- Text Messaging Gets a Translator - Aa New York City startup called Transclick rolls out software that translates e-mail and text messages with just one click.

-- TOMP (Translation On Mobile Phones) - No registration nor additional software is required to access the TOMP service, and it will work on any phone that is subscribed to a UK network provider, even when roaming abroad.

-- English-Arabic translations via SMS - Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) tannounced the launch of the new Tarjim service, which allows mobile users to receive translations between Arabic and English of words or phrases.

-- SMS translator - A computerized SMS translation service called TransClick, provides quick and accurate translations between most major languages.

According to Bits, authorities in San Mateo County in California are considering whether to file criminal charges in connection with the sale of a missing next-generation iPhone belonging to Apple.

According to California law, if property doesn’t exceed $950, a case will be classified as a misdemeanor, but since the technology blog Gizmodo paid $5,000 for the device, a felony charge would be possible.

... Brian Lam, Gizmodo’s editor, said the organization had returned the device and that Gizmodo “didn’t know this was stolen when we bought it.”

... In revealing the next iPhone months before Apple is expected to officially unveil it, Gizmodo reportedly reaped ~2m pageviews per hour as the story spread around the web. Some believe that all of those pageviews could have -- in theory -- added up to as much as $150,000 in extra revenue.

But according to Gawker Media owner Nick Denton , that's far from the case. At a State of Gadget Media roundtable this week, Denton claimed that "there were no immediate revenue benefits whatsoever." Instead, he says, the biggest tech scoop in recent memory has actually cost Gawker money. There's $7,000 in extra bandwidth costs, and Denton seems resigned to the possibility that he may wind up paying legal bills if Apple decides to pursue Gawker in court.

Mobile phones as payment devices and virtual online currency are among the changes Canadians will see as the credit card industry transforms after increased losses and stepped-up government regulation, according to The Vancouver Sun.

The credit card industry is caught in a perfect storm," the report said. "Record net loss rates driven by rising consumer bankruptcies are occurring at a time of increased government regulation."

As a result, the credit cards have gone from being one of the most profitable to one of the least profitable areas.

Emerging trends in the industry will change credit cards, with the Internet and mobile technology playing a central role in payment systems.

One of the world’s leading newspaper auditors has added mobile phones to the list of mediums that it tracks, providing validation to the wireless industry, while also potentially giving publications a shot of new readers as traditional print audiences decline.

A new, decades-long study launched yesterday to investigate possible links between cell phone use and a series of health problems, including cancer and Alzheimer's. Cnet reports.

Part of the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research (MTHR) Program, the cohort study on mobile communications (COSMOS), is set to follow at least 250,000 people aged 18 to 69 from five European countries for 20 to 30 years.

The study will specifically investigate the long-term impact of cell phone use on health.

April 20, 2010

In an amazing new initiative, thousands of people in Afghanistan, Ghana and Bangladesh will be voting in the UK general election under a unique project that enables Britons to donate their vote to foreigners in the developing world.

The initiative, Give Your Vote, will come to prominence on Thursday when the UK's televised leaders' debate on foreign policy is broadcast with subtitles to crowds in the capital cities Kabul, Accra and Dhaka.

News Leader reports that The Reynolds Journalism Institute is holding an industry summit on how newspapers can adapt to the growing demand by consumers for news delivered to cell phones. The two-day meeting concludes Tuesday with a 9 a.m. round-table discussion open to the public.

Reynolds fellow and Missouri journalism professor Clyde Bentley says that by 2013, mobile phones will overtake computers as the most common device for Web access.

Are Telecoms oo good to be true? The technology has completely transformed life and business in Africa, but evidence of dire health risks is being ignored, writes Glenn Ashton for Times Live.

While few can deny the economic benefits that this growth has brought to a continent historically hobbled by a patchy telecommunications infrastructure, the physical risks on the health of the people of Africa have neither been quantified nor are they being monitored.

South Africa has at least one documented cluster of negative health effects arising near wi-max broadband antennae, with side effects including rashes, dizziness, insomnia and tinnitus, inability to concentrate and headaches. These symptoms have shown up across people of all ages and even in pets.

Wildlife studies have demonstrated proof of reduced reproduction in birds nesting near transmission sites. Rodent studies demonstrate statistically significant linkages between exposure and loss of fertility, as well as increased rates of cancer related to genetic damage.

... Nations which maintain accurate statistical data, such as Sweden, have shown remarkable negative impacts on health and absenteeism rates after the installation of these new generation data transmission systems. Consequently, limitations have been placed on where base stations are located and the types of electromagnetic emissions that are permitted in various locales.

In Africa and most of the global south there is little such oversight.

According to Reuters, a new study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project reports that one third of U.S. teenagers with cell phones send more than 100 texts a day and that Texting has even eclipsed cell phone calls, instant messaging, social networks and talking face-to-face.

... The percentage of teens with cell phones who sent at least one text message a day increased from 38 percent in 2008 to 54 percent in September 2009, according to the study.

Meanwhile 38 percent of teens said they daily make at least one cell phone call, 30 percent said they talk on a landline phone and 24 percent said they used instant messaging.

Half of teens send 50 or more text messages a day, or 1,500 texts a month and one in three send more than 100 texts a day, or more than 3,000 texts a month. Older teen girls ages 14-17 lead the charge on text messaging, averaging 100 messages a day for the entire cohort. The youngest teen boys are the most resistant to texting – averaging 20 messages per day.

Supreme Court justices appeared open Monday to a California city's claim that a SWAT team officer should not have expected text messages he sent on a government pager to his wife and, separately, a mistress, to remain private. USA Today reports.

In a case that could broadly influence policies for government workers' use of employer-issued pagers, cellphones and other electronic devices, Ontario city officials are appealing a lower court decision that said it breached a sergeant's constitutional protection against unreasonable searches when it reviewed his texts, some of them sexually explicit.

Much of the country's population of 1.3 billion people remains beyond the reach of advanced communication technology. China's Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), the government-controlled overseer of Internet domain names in the country, counts more than 384 million Internet users in China, the most in any country but still less than one-third of China's population.

Rural China had over 100 million Internet users at the end of last year, accounting for just 15 percent of the rural population, according to a report put online Thursday by the CNNIC. That compares to 45 percent of people online in bigger cities, a gap that has widened for the last two years, the report said.

April 17, 2010

Ping is a garment that connects to your Facebook account wirelessly and from anywhere. It allows you to stay connected to your friends and groups of friends simply by performing natural gestures that are built into the mechanics of the garments we wear. Lift up a hood, tie a bow, zip, button, and simply move, bend and swing to ping your friends naturally and automatically. No phone, no laptop, no hardware. Simply go about your day, look good and stay connected.

The biggest takeaway from a report published by Millennial Media today is that smartphone users are consuming more content—and therefore more ads—on nearly every smartphone and connected device available in the market. [mocoNews]

-- Android ad requests grew 72 percent in March month over month.

-- iPad impressions increased 713 percent in the first full week the device was available.

In this patent, tickets to the concert you desire can be sold through iTunes, and the ticket stored on your iPhone, ready to be presented when entering the venue. To make your life easier, Maps, venue information and all the other mumbo jumbo will be included in the app.

In this patent, tickets to the concert you desire can be sold through iTunes, and the ticket stored on your iPhone, ready to be presented when entering the venue. To make your life easier, Maps, venue information and all the other mumbo jumbo will be included in the app.

Ubergizmo raises a good question: if such a patent were to be turned into a real product, would Apple begin sell all kinds of tickets, and take a slice of profit from each sale?

Apple’s chief executive apparently believes that his company made a mistake when it rejected an iPhone app from Mark FIore, a cartoonist who is now a Pulitzer prize winner. Steve Jobs, the Apple chief executive, responded by e-mail message to a customer who asked about Mark Fiore’s rejected app on Friday. “This was a mistake that’s being fixed,” Mr. Jobs replied.

The man who allegedly sent text messages threatening a dozen parliamentarians — including Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor — on April 13, was arrested on Friday, according to Indian Express.

In the words of a Microsoft spokesperson: "Microsoft takes the issue of sexting very seriously and it was never our intent to promote it in any way."

The video included a sequence in which a young man at a party is shown putting a Kin under his shirt, snapping a picture of his naked breast, and e-mailing it to a young woman across the room, who receives it amusedly.

The scene "did not come across in the spirit with which it was intended," Microsoft says. "Upon further review, we have acknowledged that and since removed the clip."

... Campus Safety magazine polled "campus protection officials" last spring and found that 87 percent said their schools currently use text messaging for emergency alerts, and that an average of 48.9 percent of students sign up for such programs.

mocoNews has gleamed some official and hard to come by Twitter stats from the horse's mouth.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone finally made public some numbers at its Chirp conference Wednesday. He says the site now has 105,779,710 registered users—and is adding 300,000 new users a day. About 60 percent of them are coming from outside the U.S.

Editorial cartoonist Mark Fiore won a Pulitzer Prize Monday for animations he made for the SFGate, the online home of the San Francisco Chronicle. But Fiore, who is a freelancer who runs a syndication business, was rejected by Apple in December for an app called NewToons that features his work.

The Glee app is probably the most technically ambitious app Smule has done. Users can sing along with the cast to their favorite songs, share their best recordings with their friends, and create virtual Glee clubs.

The app not only corrects their pitch but also generates harmonized background singing.